South African police have arrested a man who they say swallowed 220 polished diamonds in an attempt to smuggle them out of the country.

The man was arrested as he waited to board a plane at Johannesburg airport.

Officials said a scan of his body revealed the diamonds he had ingested, worth $2.3m (£1.4m; 1.8m euros), inside.

The man was reportedly of Lebanese origin and was travelling to Dubai.

« We nabbed him just before he went through the security checkpoint, » Paul Ramaloko, spokesman of the South Africa elite police unit the Hawks said, according to Agence France Presse.

Authorities believe the man belongs to a smuggling ring. Another man was arrested in March also attempting to smuggle diamonds out the country in a similar way.

South Africa is among the world’s top producers of diamonds.